Mommy dances: Theatre for the very young as artistic research

Abstract

The author discusses different approaches to artistic research based on her own research project involving several closely related theatre performances for young children. Key to the project is the development of a form of dance theatre in which the child audience is given the opportunity to actively participate and interact with the performers. The dramatic structure of the improvised dance concert Mamma Danser (2011) alternates between a common focus, an individual, “own” focus and a “multifocus”. The article discusses what implications this may have for the children, the performers and the researching artist. In scientific research a clear focus and a reflective perspective are often seen as crucial for the result, while in artistic processes more intuitive and improvised approaches are employed, consequently providing a different type of knowledge. Such knowledge, which is not readily accessible through the “outsider" perspective of hermeneutic interpretation, becomes evident by setting different interpretations and perspectives in dialogue with each other and with the performers’ own bodily experiences. Henk Borgdorff’s separation between an interpretive, an instrumental, and a performative research perspective is applied to provide a comprehensive picture of the process of creating artistic performances for young children. In conclusion, the author maintains that this research project demonstrates the possibility of creating common art experiences in which both adults and children take part in reciprocal interaction and improvisation.